Friday, October 13, 2017

This is what it looks like when angry white people use a "democratic" process to wipe the memory and achievement of an honorable and successful black man from history. The drive to do away with him is so powerful that the "base" is willing to sacrifice their own to a life of no access to health care and potentially destroy the entire planet.

This is what it looks like when vengeance is the primary purpose of politics.

Do not forget these days. Because they are, for many, the opportunity to see what they never saw. The evil of the days can serve to awaken. Even after "he" is no longer president. Because until we deal with the depth of race and hierarchies and violence, this will continue.

Today, take a moment and be grateful for those who see clearly, who work with heart and passion for renewed practices of inclusion and true democracy in this, our national home.

I invite you to name some of those people here. Those who embody joy and justice in the midst of all of this.

Yours, Diana

Bass speaks truth with eloquence. The first names that come to mind are Desmond Tutu, Malala Yousafzai,Barack Obama, and Michelle Obama. The inclusion of "joy" makes it more difficult to think of others, but the word belongs. Gratitude is quite often difficult for me, but Bass is right to include the word "grateful" in her letter.

Friday, July 29, 2016

The GOP and others on TV and the internet remind us early and often about polls that show large numbers of people in the US believe the country is headed in the wrong direction. Keep in mind that our president is not a dictator, and Republicans will have held the majority in both houses of Congress for six years of the president's two terms in office.

Republicans were determined to make Obama a one term president from the day he took office. They failed and were angry and frustrated and further motivated to block nearly every initiative the president put forward to Congress, even to the extreme of shutting down the government when they didn't get what they wanted.

At this moment, it's hard to believe that no matter which party held the presidency and the majorities in Congress, the two parties once worked together to govern the country. The list of things left undone when Obama leaves office would be much shorter if he'd had even a minimum of cooperation from Republicans in Congress.

Saturday, September 27, 2014

On a 36-month schedule for “destroying” ISIS, the president is already
ceding his war to the next president, as was done to him by George W.
Bush. That next president may well be Hillary Clinton, who was secretary
of state as Iraq War 2.0 sputtered to its conclusion. Notably, it was
her husband whose administration kept the original Iraq War of 1990-1991
alive via no-fly zones and sanctions. Call that a pedigree of sorts
when it comes to fighting in Iraq until hell freezes over.

If there is a summary lesson here, perhaps it’s that there is
evidently no hole that can’t be dug deeper. How could it be more
obvious, after more than two decades of empty declarations of victory in
Iraq, that genuine “success,” however defined, is impossible? The only
way to win is not to play. Otherwise, you’re just a sucker at the
geopolitical equivalent of a carnival ringtoss game with a fist full of
quarters to trade for a cheap stuffed animal.

In his televised address on Wednesday, September 10, 2014, President Obama said, "Our objective is clear: we will degrade, and ultimately destroy, ISIL
through a comprehensive and sustained counter-terrorism strategy." and, "...we will not get dragged into another ground war." Whatever the label for the present war, it is now Obama's war.
I thought it right that the US helped to rescue the Yazidis from the
mountain where they were trapped and that we provide assistance and military equipment to the Kurds, who
seem to me the sanest people in the territory, but we should stop there. Is anyone thinking through to possible consequences of bombing in Iraq and now in Syria?

What
will happen if a pilot is shot down and captured by ISIL, and the worst happens? Surely there
will be cries for further escalation. Turkey has taken in over 1
million refugees. Are we willing to welcome refugees from Syria and
Iraq whose homes are destroyed by our bombs or who flee from their homes
for fear of being bombed? While it's true that we created a number of the problems in Iraq, I don't see how bombing, killing, and wounding more Iraqis will solve them. ISIL
is a brutal organization, but what is the end game? How will we know
when ISIL is defeated? What if ISIL is not destroyed in 36 months?

Iraq, as a country, was cobbled together by British colonial powers after WWI. Kurds and Shi'ites tried to break away at the time, but the colonial powers quelled the revolt. Sunni/Shi'ite divisions go further back than the colonial period. Despite past interventions by Western powers, we cannot now fix the troubles in the
Middle East. In Iraq, the center will not hold, no matter how many bombs we drop, but the destruction proceeds, and who knows how or when it will all end? We can be certain the end will not come before more innocents are killed, wounded, or driven from their homes.

Monday, September 8, 2014

“We are going to have to find effective partners on the ground to
push back against ISIL,” Obama said, using the government’s acronym for
the Islamic State and referring specifically to its sanctuary in Syria. “The moderate coalition there is one that we can work with. We have
experience working with many of them. They have been, to some degree,
outgunned and outmanned, and that’s why it’s important for us to work
with our friends and allies to support them more effectively.”

Who the hell are the moderates in Syria that will be trustworthy
allies, Mr President? Good luck with finding them and keeping them as
allies.

Oh wait! We can relax now. The CIA is on the case.

There are indications that the hard work to build such a force is
already underway, overseen by the CIA, despite remarks by Obama last
month disparaging the moderate U.S.-backed Syrian opposition as
“doctors, farmers, pharmacists, and so forth.”

Where's an eye-roll emoticon when you need one?

To intervene in Syria would be escalation on a scale that I would not want to see. We've not been asked. We'd be fighting ISIL, but would that mean Assad suddenly becomes our ally? Before the rapid territorial advances of ISIL in Syria, we wanted Assad out. In today's speak, we were for Assad before we were against him. Are we once again to be for him? I can't keep up.

If we are going to be in a state of perpetual war, we need to reinstitute the draft, with everyone of suitable age eligible for call to duty, and no exemptions except for those with physical or mental disabilities.

Monday, June 16, 2014

For many months, the Obama and Maliki governments talked about keeping a residual force of American troops in Iraq, which would act largely to train Iraq’s Army and to provide intelligence against Sunni insurgents. (It would almost certainly have been barred from fighting.) Those were important reasons to stay, but the most important went largely unstated: it was to continue to act as a restraint on Maliki’s sectarian impulses, at least until the Iraqi political system was strong enough to contain him on its own. The negotiations between Obama and Maliki fell apart, in no small measure because of a lack of engagement by the White House. Today,many Iraqis, including some close to Maliki, say that a small force of American soldiers—working in non-combat roles—would have provided a crucial stabilizing factor that is now Iraq. Sami al-Askari, a Maliki confidant, told me for my article this spring, “If you had a few hundred here, not even a few thousand, they would be coöperating with you, and theywould become your partners.” President Obama wanted the Americans to come home, and Maliki didn’t particularly want them to stay.

My comment in response to the post:

Dexter, years ago, I read your brilliant articles in the New York Times when you covered the Battle of Fallujah, and I sent you emails commending you for your courage and honesty in reporting on the battle. You answered my emails and we corresponded for a while. I know you know Iraq far better than I do and that you came to care for the welfare of the Iraqi people while you reported from their war-torn country.

Still, I am shocked and surprised that you blame Obama's "disengagement" from Iraq for part of the killing and chaos we see today. The president inherited a papered-over chaotic mess. The Bush/Cheney administration wrecked the country, and there was no way Obama could have fixed the situation. You'd have to make the case for me that a few hundred or even a few thousand US military left in the country would have made a difference.

You say:

Sami al-Askari, a Maliki confidant, told me for my article this spring, “If you had a few hundred here, not even a few thousand, they would be coöperating with you, and they would become your partners.”

Why would you take these words at face-value? Maliki wanted us out, and we wanted out, so a very strong case would have had to be made to both sides to keep our military there. Now it's all gone bad, and Maliki wants us back. As others have already said, Iraq is three countries which were grouped into one geographical mass by foreign powers, and the movement now is strongly toward break-up. I fail to understand how a small group of American military could make a difference, and I fail to see how the Obama administration is to blame.

When we send arms to Syria, we are not sure whom we are arming, nor are we certain where the arms will end up. The same will be true in Iraq, and we end up arming opposing forces in both countries.

I wondered where the war-mongering neo-cons, who are now nipping at Obama's heels, got their talking points, and I thought it was pure made-up let's-get Obama-at-any-cost talk because an election approaches, but, to my great disappointment, I see one answer in this blog post, alas.

Monday, January 6, 2014

More than two years after the administration failed to reach a status of
forces agreement with Iraq and withdrew all American combat troops from
the country, the two senior Republican senators are blaming President
Barack Obama for the violence erupting there this week.

Oh, and Syria, too.

"[The administration] has sat by and refused to take any meaningful
action, while the conflict has claimed more than 130,000 lives, driven a
quarter of the Syrian population from their homes, fueled the
resurgence of al Qaeda, and devolved into a regional conflict that now
threatens our national security interests and the stability of Syria's
neighbors, especially Iraq," they said.

Send in the troops! Let the two old
soldiers be the first to set foot on the ground in Iraq. Wait! One to
Iraq and the other to Syria. Take your choice, fellas. You'll set
things right in no time.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

The absolute worst mistake Obama has made as president came back in 2011
when Republicans first pulled this stunt. At that time, Obama
desperately wanted a bargain over long-term fiscal policy. So he tried a
bit of too-clever-by-half political jujitsu in which GOP debt ceiling
hostage taking became a pretext to start negotiations over long-term
budgeting. All manner of evils have fallen forth from that fateful
decisions, including an economic weak patch in 2011 the ongoing mess of
sequestration, and worst of all the setting of a precedent for future
crises. The good news is that the White House recognizes they made a
mistake, and the last time Republicans tried to pull this they didn't
give in. And they can't give in now. Not even a little bit. A terrible
monster was let out of the box in 2011 and the best thing Obama can
possibly do for the country at this point is to stuff it back in and
hopefully kill it.

Matt Yglesias is correct. The Republican sharks smelled blood, and they have never let up trying to repeat that success. For the life of me, I cannot understand why Republicans in the US Congress, who make much of personal responsibility when the matter under discussion is programs for the neediest among us, think it's right and proper for the federal government of the United States to default on debts that are owed, an occurrence which has never happened before in the history of the country. Why is paying our debts a matter of controversy?

Monday, September 16, 2013

How sad it is when Democrats who elected Barack Obama must remain in constant campaign mode to convince the president that many of us who helped put him in office do not want him to repeat the mistakes of the past. The recent (and barely avoided) mistakes that I have in mind are the launch of another war in the Middle East and the appointment of Larry Summers to a position of authority that has anything whatsoever to do with managing the economy of the United States.

But ultimately, the resolution of this, David, there's not a military resolution to this. There is a political resolution.

And the political resolution is to launch missiles that will explode and
kill people? Will the president and his top aides continue to argue the
case in the pure logic of doublespeak? The people who believe the
president is feinting may have a point. The president and his top aides
seem to have stopped trying to persuade or make sense.

“After
a lot of careful thought and prayer, I have decided that I will vote no
on the Syria war resolution,” he said in a news release today.

Will the Republicans be the ones who save us from war? Vitter will vote
against the resolution because he's against anything the president
proposes, but I'm not choosy about allies in the effort to stop the
madness.

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D) and Rep. Bill Cassidy (R) are still undecided.

My guess is President Obama will order the strikes whether Congress votes in favor of the resolution or not, to what good purpose I cannot see.

Saturday, August 31, 2013

Slippery slope: "The bottom line, as Kerry outlined in his speech, is
that the White House believes inaction, after conclusively determining
that Bashar al-Assad’s regime is behind the Aug. 21 chemical weapons
attack in Damascus, would open the possibility of other countries or
groups concluding that they could use such weapons in the future without
fear of retribution."

National security: (There is no alternative): “Make no mistake, in an
increasingly complicated world of sectarian and religious extremist
violence, what we choose to do or not do matters in real ways to our own
security. Some site the risk of doing things. But we need to ask, ‘What
is the risk of doing nothing?’,” Kerry said.

WMD!: “Our high
confidence assessment is the strongest position that the U.S.
Intelligence Community can take short of confirmation,” the government
said in the brief.

The plan: The White House is reportedly considering limited air strikes on military targets as retaliation for
the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons. Senior administration
officials also repeated that the administration is not aiming to achieve a regime change in Syria.

Syria's chemical arsenal is less of a threat to the US than the arsenals of other despots around the world.
Saddam gassed the Kurds, but we didn't launch the Iraq war for that reason.

Kerry makes much of the children who were killed by gas, but what of children killed in drone attacks? We're to weep over pictures of children killed by gas, but we never see the pictures of children blown apart by drone missiles. The airstrikes will almost certainly cause collateral damage (the ultimate
euphemism for dead and wounded people!), which will include children and other innocents. I weep for
all the children.

What if Assad continues his defiance after we flex our muscles with the limited airstrikes? What do we do next?

I'm not buying Kerry's argument. I've heard it all before when we have undertaken deadly, misbegotten military adventures. Obama and Kerry have pretty well boxed themselves in with their chest-thumping and red line on Assad's use of gas, but I hope and pray the president will have the courage and humility to turn away from inflicting more violence on the Syrian people, who are already suffering.

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

There are a hundred and sixty-six prisoners at Guantánamo Bay. Military officials told reporters earlier this week that thirty-one—almost one in five—were engaged in a hunger strike. By Friday, the number
was thirty-seven, or closer to one in four. Eighty-six—more than one in
two—have been cleared for release, meaning that the government doesn’t
think that it has a case against them or even that they pose a threat,
but it is keeping them locked up anyway, and has no imminent plans to
let them go. Only six of the prisoners—just about one in
twenty-eight—are facing trial. That means that there are six times as
many prisoners on hunger strikes as there are those who have actual
charges lodged against them.

Read the entire piece. The prisoners on hunger strike are being force-fed through nasal tubes. That such a prison as Guantánamo exists at all is a shameful blight on the reputation of the United States. President Obama must do everything in his power to close the prison by executive order or whatever means possible and not continue to depend on Congress. The prisoners who have been cleared and have no hope for release fall into despair and want to die, and who can blame them? At the press conference yesterday, Obama said, "It's not sustainable - I mean, the notion that
we're going to continue to keep over 100 individuals in a no-man's land
in perpetuity," Exactly. So do something, Mr President.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

After reading your budget plan, I'm wondering why I supported you. For one thing there is no link, nor should there be in the talking points about Social Security and Medicare. The fix for Social Security is simple: lift the cap.

True, Medicare will eventually need to be addressed, but let's keep the two separate. They are two different programs and are funded differently.

Do you really think Republicans will suddenly become serious because you offer them cuts in two of the most popular programs of the federal government? They will not, and they will find a way to use the offers against you.

Please stop worrying about possible future Republican presidents and concentrate on governing now. You are the president now, and you need to do the right thing by the people who supported you.

Thank you for your attention.

Why, why, why does Obama continue to think if he cuts vital programs which are popular throughout the country that the Republicans will play nice? Why does he make concessions before negotiations even begin? I'm exhausted from having to goad a Democratic president and Democratic legislators to do what progressives elected them to do.

My next effort was to call Mary Landrieu's office to appeal to her to vote for background checks for those who purchase firearms. When I asked what was her position, I was told she had not made up her mind on whether to vote for the bill or not. I left the message with the staff member that I couldn't understand her hesitation. The background checks are not even comprehensive, as the law will not apply to private sales. Why is her support of the measure even in question? Yes, I know the senator will be up for reelection in 2014, and she may have a tough fight ahead, but sometimes getting reelected should not be the top priority. Sometimes you just do the right thing.

Come on, Democrats, throw me a bone. Show me that I don't waste my efforts in supporting and voting for Democratic candidates.

UPDATE: Post edited to remove the inaccurate report from "The Raw Story" that Mary Landrieu voted against ending the filibuster. The two Democratic senators who voted against are Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) and Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.). I am pleased to make the correction.

Monday, January 21, 2013

We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths –- that all of us are created equal –- is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall; just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great Mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone; to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth.It is now our generation’s task to carry on what those pioneers began. For our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts. Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law –- for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well. Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote. Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity — until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country. Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia, to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for and cherished and always safe from harm.

No matter the outcome, Obama had already clinched re-election and now has 332 electoral votes to Romney’s 206.

Like the Battle of New Orleans, the vote in Florida didn't change the outcome.

It’s normal for election supervisors in Florida and other states to
spend days after any election counting absentee, provisional, military
and overseas ballots. Usually, though, the election has already been
called on election night or soon after because the winner’s margin is
beyond reach.

And don't we all know that? The "razor-thin margin" of 74,000 votes was sufficient not to trigger a recount - not that anyone would pay attention. Thank you, Colorado, Nevada, and Ohio!

The reason for the big stock sell-off on the two days after the election, according to what I hear and read from a good many people, is simple. I say reason because there's only one reason for the catastrophic drop in the Dow - despair over the reelection of President Obama for another four years, which will be the end of the world as we know it.

I know little about the stock market, but investing in stocks seems pretty much of a crap shoot, since it appears that a good many, but surely not all, investors buy and sell on the basis of emotions, which run the gamut from euphoria to panic, and a soupçon of research. I am told by experts that, in the long run, investments in stocks produce the best results, but that one should have a balanced portfolio, because as some investments go up, others go down, i.e. stocks versus bonds. That's in the long run. And yes, it's true that in the long run, we are all dead, and we can't take it with us.

By temperament I am not a risk-taker, but it seems to me that during a sell-off is the time to buy stocks at bargain prices. It's knowing when the bottom is near that's sticky. Just when do you jump in? I tend not to follow the herd, buying when everyone is buying, and selling when everyone is selling. I'd do the opposite. Anyway, Grandpère does most of the investing under the guidance of a trusted friend and what he reads around and about, but before he makes changes, he usually discusses them with me, and I give him my sage advice which he follows sometimes and other times not. But I digress.

An article by Michael Santoli from yesterday made a great deal of sense to me. Investors who headed for the fainting couch during the precipitous drop may wish to read...or not. The article is reality-based, so Republicans may not be interested.

Like anything complicated, a dramatic market move is inevitably driven
by things we know, things we don't, and things we know that just aren't
so. The past two days' 3.5% stock sell-off has had an unusual volume of
sloganeered causes pinned to it, making it all the more important to
figure out where the obvious factors deviate from the valid ones.

What else besides the reelection of the president might have been at play in the sell-off?

The election
President Obama's re-election was a close enough call as of Tuesday
morning that a significant number of investors clearly set up a tactical
bet on a Romney win.

Yes, get that one out of the way.

The fiscal cliff
This impending expiration of some $600 billion worth of annual tax cuts
and spending measures, arriving Jan. 1 unless Congress acts, has gone
from obscure preoccupation of economists and Washington wonks to a
full-blown public obsession in about 72 hours.

If you read nothing else at the link, please read the section on the fiscal cliff.

Europe
The resurfacing of concerns about the European economy and the progress
of the Greek bailout and general sovereign-debt firewall there might be
the one factor not getting enough credit for the market queasiness.

I've heard and read that the European economic troubles have nothing to do with the drop in the Dow, but I don't believe it, and neither does Santoli.

Market technical clues
Stocks were showing waning momentum well before the bleating about taxes
and cliffs got loud this week. Yesterday the Standard & Poor's 500
sagged below its 200-day moving average, which many market handicappers
believe means the market's prevailing trend is no longer up.

If the president is to be blamed, I'd like to see the buck stop with him because of what he's actually done besides get reelected, not because of mistaken perceptions - that he is a socialist (which is laughable), or because he's black (yes, racism is in the air), or because the majority of people in the United States had the temerity to reelect him to office against the wishes of a vocal and angry minority. I'm not above faulting the president for his policies and actions over the last four years, for I have done so more than once, but I'm thoroughly sick and tired of him being blamed for all the wrong reasons, especially by those who do not and will not consider truths and facts that do not fit into the fantasy world they have created for themselves. Witness their shock and disbelief that Obama was reelected in the face of late polls that showed him ahead.

In his speech on Election Night, President Obama gave you all the title you have spent the last year and a half earning:

"The best campaign team and volunteers in the history of politics."

So many times in this election, this campaign was counted out. They said
our supporters wouldn't turn out, and we'd never see the kind of voter
participation we saw in 2008. They said we'd be buried in money and
special-interest influence. And they said that no campaign could
overcome the political headwinds we faced.

Last year, a major American newspaper asked, "Is Obama toast?" As
recently as two weeks ago, another ran this headline: "Can Obama win?"

Tuesday night, you all answered all of those doubts with a resounding
YES WE CAN. By knocking on doors, organizing phone banks, and chipping
in a few bucks when you could, you built a campaign that is
unparalleled. And you re-elected our president.

You also proved that millions of ordinary people taking ownership of a
cause is still the most powerful force in our political process. You
showed that grassroots organizing and small donations are not only the
right way to win, but also the most effective way.

How we got here must guide where we go. If we're going to accomplish the
things America voted for on Tuesday, you've got to be even more
involved in getting them done than you were in giving us all the chance.

We'll be in touch soon about how we can get started on some of the President's top priorities in his second term.

For now, I just want to say I am so proud of this team. And I can't wait
to see where you take this incredible movement from here.

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BLOGGERS' PRAYER

"Almighty God, you proclaim your truth in every age by many voices: Direct, in our time, we pray, those who speak where many listen and write what many read; that they may do their part in making the heart of this people wise, its mind sound, and its will righteous; to the honor of Jesus Christ our Lord."Book of Common Prayer

GOD'S PRESENCE

"O my God, since Thou art with me, and I must now, in obedience to Thy commands, apply my mind to these outward things, I beseech Thee to grant me the grace to continue in Thy presence; and to this end do Thou prosper me with Thy assistance, receive all my works, and possess all my affections."Brother Lawrence

LADY ENTHRONED

Luiz Coelho, Jr.

“Let those who have a voice, speak out for the voiceless.”Óscar Romero

"How can you initiate someone and then treat them like a half-assed baptized?"The Rt Rev Barbara Harris

"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant."Martin Luther King

"Silence is the voice of complicity."Fr. Roy Bourgeois

"There ain't nothin' more powerful than the odor of mendacity...You can smell it. It smells like death."Big Daddy in Tennessee Williams', Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

THE AFTERLIFE

“So, is there an afterlife, and if so, what will it be like? I don't have a clue. But I am confident that the one who has buoyed us up in life will also buoy us up through death. We die into God. What more that means, I do not know. But that is all I need to know.” Marcus Borg - Speaking Christian: Why Christian Words Have Lost Their Meaning and Power

"Sì. Mi chiamano Mimì."

June Butler - email

wb73gm at gmail dot com

On occasion, Wounded Bird, indulges in irony.

"I hope that I never ridicule what is wise or good. Follies and nonsense, whims and inconsistencies do divert me, I own, and I laugh at them whenever I can."Elizabeth Bennet, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen